


The Square Root of Tuesday

by bloubird_scribe



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fluff, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-11
Updated: 2013-02-11
Packaged: 2017-11-28 21:55:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/679288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloubird_scribe/pseuds/bloubird_scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything special always happens on a Tuesday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Square Root of Tuesday

-*-

The first time Liam sees Louis he’s afraid. Because it’s too early in Tuesday morning, and he’s in the university’s cafeteria waiting for Niall to get their tea so they can get to Zayn’s gallery showing, when his world sort of slows.

There’s this boy with a nice tan and broad biceps, adorable tummy, and tight jeans that just show off this bum that has Liam thinking very dirty things. He has beautiful blue eyes that he’s convinced could compete dirty with Niall’s, and the way his brown hair glistens in the sunlight that seeps through the cafeteria windows makes it looks like it’s golden and honey and suddenly Liam feels hot all over.

Mainly because Niall’s managed to drop his own tea and Liam’s tea all over the place.

“Oh for god’s sake Niall!” Someone shouts, and Liam realizes that it’s the beautiful boy who he was just swooning over. And because Niall’s tea managed to get on his white trainers and oh my god Niall knows who this boy is.

“Argh!” Niall shouts out, and the boy, despite him being a victim, moves to help him clean it up. He ruffles Niall’s hair when they finish and smiles at him brightly. “Be careful there blonde. Don’t want to burn your friend here.”

Liam’s frowning now because, what friend is this boy speaking of? And it’s then that Liam realizes that the friend is him, and he is still staring.

“That’s Liam, my best mate. Liam, this is Louis, my best pain in the arse.”. Niall says, gesturing between them accordingly.

Louis sticks his hand out and Liam takes it robotically, still sort of unsure how to deal with the odd chance that this beauty of a man is in front of him. And he’s scared.

“Hi! Nice to meet you finally! Niall always said you had a puppy face and I guess I should’ve believed him. I hope he hasn’t mentioned anything too naughty or graphic about me. And if he has, they’re all lies.”

Liam stutters. “Uh, uh no actually, I uh…yeah.” He’s mentally kicking himself because wow. That was more than awkward.

Louis tilts his head as if he’s considering something, considering Liam and then he frowns and Liam’s heart almost breaks. “You don’t talk much, do you?”

Liam shakes his head, and ignores Niall as he tries to stifle his giggles. “No.” 

“Liam is too innocent.” Niall teases.

Louis smiles then, and pokes Liam’s cheek, pokes it and then almost caresses the side of his face and Liam is praying that Louis doesn’t look in Liam’s lap. “That’s okay. I’ll make a mess upon that innocence sooner or later.” And then he reaches down and tweaks Liam’s nipple, and he barely makes a squeak before Louis is stalking toward a tall boy with massively curly hair and Niall is falling apart in stitches of laughter.

Liam is afraid, so afraid and confused and when he manages to think straight again, he punches Niall in the arm. “You owe me tea, you clumsy git.” 

-*- 

After that, Liam isn’t as afraid. He’s doing just fine, actually. He and Niall see Louis again with that same boy with the curly hair and he learns that his name is Harry. He also learns from Niall that apparently Harry and Louis were a thing, whether they still are however, is a mystery. They act like it, but then Harry’s off snogging someone else and Louis takes some bloke home from the club, but the next day, they’re back to laying all over each other. 

His first experience with the Harry and Louis as a couple who is off, is when Niall drags him to go to a small party with the three of them. From the moment they arrive at the club Harry has a drink in his hand and is on the dance floor. After the first hour, he’s a very jealous and possessive drunk, pining over Louis, and it’s desparate.

It’s also a Tuesday night, and Liam has a lesson in the morning. 

“Pay attention to me!” Harry whines, tugging sharply on the hair at the nape of Louis’s neck. 

Louis winces and shoots an apologetic smile at Liam, before turning to Harry. “Harry, that’s rude and you know it.”

But Harry doesn’t care, and lays a slap to Louis’s arm. Louis catches his wrist before he can lean forward and slap Liam on his leg. “Harry no, we don’t hit to get what we want.” He turns to Liam and gives him a dazzling smile. “Sorry, he’s acting like a child.”

Liam shakes his head. “No, that’s okay. Here, I’ll go find Niall. And we can go-“

“Yeah, you do that.” Harry says, his voice venomous. Liam’s mid way of standing. 

“No!” Louis protests almost immediately. He lets go of Harry’s wrist, taking Liam’s instead, and Harry’s giving Liam daggers. “He can take care of himself. Let’s just go over here and talk, okay?”

And Harry watched Louis and Liam walk away with a bitter look, but Liam knows Louis isn’t looking back at him. When they sit down on a sofa near the wall, Louis sighs and leans forward to whisper in Liam’s ear over the music. “I’m really sorry about Harry. He can be such a fucking arse sometimes.”

“N-No it’s, it’s okay really. I-I mean, h-he can’t seem to help himself. And I-I don’t really blame him.” He says, and fuck because he’s stuttering again. But his heart is racing and he can literally feel his skin radiating and does Louis need to be this close? 

Louis leans back and gives Liam a look. “What do you mean?”

“Around you.” He manages to say. “He can’t help himself around you.”

“And you don’t blame him? Liam Payne are you coming on to me?”

Liam’s eyes go wide and his heart stops. “Wh-What? N-No I swear! I didn’t mean, I mean if that’s what you, I never meant to - I had a drink and I think-” Liam pauses and makes a face. Louis doesn’t say anything, but he knows Liam didn’t have a drink. He knows because he’s been by Liam’s side all night, but he’s letting him have this excuse.

Just this excuse.

Harry pops in then and he’s with Zayn. “Here,” he says. “Take your stupidly sensible boyfriend. He’s hogging my mate.”

“Okay.” Zayn says with a small smile. Louis looks timid, and that sort of scares Liam.

“Hey Louis, how’s it going mate?” Zayn says, and Louis forces a smile. Harry gets this look on his face like he’s planning something.

“Fantastic! Haven’t seen you in a bit. How was your gallery show?” 

“Fine, I was really nervous but-” Zayn gets interrupted by Harry, who plants a very raunchy kiss on Zayn’s lips. Zayn is shocked at first, Liam can tell, but soon he’s relaxing into it and Louis tenses, so Liam rests a hand on his shoulder and hopes that that’s okay.

When Harry finally stops his tongue war, the lips of both boys are red and bitten and swollen and wet, and Harry looks sated. He cups Zayn’s face in his hands and bites his lower lip once, then tongues it over to heal the nip. “Pay attention to me, okay?”

Harry’s voice isn’t as harsh, but mischievous and Zayn says okay by the time Louis is dragging Liam out of the club. It’s cold out and they weren’t even in the club long enough to get warm, but Liam thinks that’s okay because he’s still with Louis. He can feel how angry he is, and thinks maybe he wants to kiss Louis too. But that’s too forward, isn’t it?

“Okay, Harry’s a major arse. I was wrong.” Louis says after a few blocks of silence.

Liam frowns, “Then why do you put up with it? If it bothers you so much, that is.”

“Because it’s Harry…it’s kind of how we work. We push each others buttons and see who snaps and then we apologize. It’s messy. But it’s us.”

Liam only nods. 

That night when Niall and Zayn and Harry come into Liam’s flat, Harry’s a little sober. He apologizes to Liam then goes to wake Louis and they can hear them shouting in the guest room from the couch.

“I don’t like this.” Niall whispers, cuddled against Liam’s side. Zayn’s on Liam’s other side, head in Liam’s lap, and he sighs. 

“I know Niall.” Zayn says. They listen for a few more minutes, but fall asleep before they hear Harry and Louis giggling like schoolboys.

-*-

Zayn and Liam are laying around Zayn’s room, and Liam’s trying to focus on his Sociology studies but he’s distracted. Zayn’s humming this love song and Liam groans because -

“Oh honestly. Are you fucking Harry?”

Zayn blinks. “Did you just swear at me?”

“Zayn…” Liam’s sporting his knowing tone because Zayn only hums love songs when he’s had a good shag in the last twenty four hours and he will not sit through another humming rendition of “Pony.” No. Not. Again.

“Oh alright.” Zayn exclaims. “No, we aren’t. We did, we have before, I mean.”

“Before being?”

“Like…two weeks ago? Few days after the club.”

“Lies. You’re humming.”

“Jesus fucking Christ Liam okay! We fucked this morning before he went to class.”

Liam throws a pencil at Zayn’s head. “Slag.”

“Oi! I’ll have you know that he came on to me. And I put up a very good fight.”

“Can’t have been that good if you fucked him.”

Zayn glowers at Liam and hits him with a pillow. “Shut the hell up.”

“And doesn’t he have Louis?”

“Nope. Why? It isn’t like you’re any better with Louis.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” Liam stutters. Zayn smiles now; the shoe’s on the other foot.

“You’re like jello around him, did you know that? You’re putty in his hands and he has absolutely no idea. It’s sweet, really.” 

Liam makes a face. “I am not. And besides. Aren’t Harry and Louis, like, a thing?”

“If they are, they’re definitely off.” Zayn says with a shrug.

This mollifies Liam…somewhat.

-*-

“You’ll come and have drinks with me, right Liam? You won’t leave me like these wankers?” Louis asks the next night, shooting death glares at Zayn and Niall and Harry who’ve ruined his plans for a drunken Saturday night with all five of them.

He and Harry have been off for a long time, about a week or so, and Zayn and Niall say it’s most likely for good.

“Of course. I’ll come.” Liam says, his spine melting because Louis puts his arm around him and squeezes. 

Zayn gives Liam a smirk and wiggles his fingers, “Like jello,” he mouths, and Liam is going to strangle him.

-*-

Louis is a handsy drunk and he keeps trying to yank Liam’s clothes off. But Liam’s never had this happen before so he keeps stuttering while trying to stop Louis. He keeps reaching for his face and Liam keeps taking both his hands and holding them down, but Louis wriggled one hand free and traces Liam’s lips.

Liam begins to stutter again, trying to say “Louis wait. No, you’re drunk.” All he manages to get out is Louis’s name, then he’s got blue eyes beaming up at him and Louis is smiling wider and he caresses Liam’s cheek.

“You didn’t stutter that time.” He says, pleased.

Liam frowns. “Is that bad?”

“Hey! You didn’t that time either. And no, it isn’t bad. I just…” And he pauses, looking down at where Liam’s still got one of his hands trapped. Liam loosens his grip to let it go but Louis moves his hands so their fingers are intertwined.

“Yeah?” Liam says, because he doesn’t want Louis to be a forgetful drunk either.

Louis shrugs. “I like it when you say my name. It sounds nice.”

And okay, Liam is going to prove Zayn wrong. He is not jello or putty around Louis Tomlinson.

…he’s a wreck.

But Zayn won’t know that.

“Let’s get you home, yeah? Harry must be waiting for you.”

“Mmm, Harry. Yeah, but…can we maybe, not go back to mines?”

“But,” Liam starts to stutter, but holds it back. “Okay. Alright.” 

Louis hums in delight.

-*-

It’s Tuesday again. Liam keeps getting teased because Saturday night he took Louis home with him just to be sure he was okay, and Sunday morning he nursed Louis’s hangover and Niall was the worst best friend ever. 

Liam threatened to move out, but even Niall knew he wouldn’t do it because Liam loves Niall way too much and dammit, when did Liam become so soft?

 ”So how was the date exactly? I’ve been taking the mickey out of ya so much that I forgot to ask.” Niall says, chewing on his sandwich. They’re in the cafeteria because they’ve both got an hour before they have to go meet up with Zayn, and Liam makes a face.

“Don’t be so loud. What if he’s in here?” This is the exact same time we met, is what Liam doesn’t say.

Niall shrugs. “He’s not here, he skipped his lessons today so he and Hazza could go shopping or some crap like that.”

“Oh,” he frowns, “Of course.”

Niall raises a brow, but Liam waves it away dismissively. “Well it wasn’t a date. It was just drinks.”

“If it was ‘just drinks’ you wouldn’t have nursed his hangover.” Niall points out, and takes a satisfactory bite of his second sandwich.

“I told him I’d bring him back to Harry but he said he didn’t want to.”

Niall blinks at him. “Oh? What else did Louis say, then?”

“He said he liked it when I said his name.”

Niall coughs and chokes, and Liam blushes. “That came out wrong, sorry.” And Niall keeps spluttering because Liam said ‘came’ and Liam is rubbish at explaining. He reaches forward and rubs Niall’s back comfortingly, shoving his water bottle in his face. Niall swats it away.

“You got in Tommo’s pants already?! That’s not like you, Li.” Niall’s face goes from  shocked and pleased to suspicious and upset. “In fact, that isn’t like you at all. Did he drug you?”

Liam blinks. “What?”

“Oh god Liam, did he slip something in your drink? Did he persuade you to sleep with him, is that it? I swear to god if you said no but he kept going I’m going to castrate that bastard. You tell me right now and I’ll-“

“Niall no!” Liam exclaims, then says more quietly, “We didn’t sleep together. He only said that because he was drunk and I wasn’t stuttering for once.”

Niall’s facial expression softens. “Oh. Okay. Well, no stuttering is good too. And Tommo’s an honest drunk. Handsy, but honest nonetheless.”

“I know. I just feel bad. Harry must’ve worried yeah? That he didn’t go home.” And Liam bites his lip after he says this, hoping he’s not being too obvious of his confusion on LouisandHarry. Niall and Zayn said it was off, but Louis still spends time with him and he’s so lost.

“Harry was fine with it.” Niall says, and there’s a flashed something in his eyes, but Liam can’t catch it. Instead, Liam nods and Niall’s finished with his sammies, so they get up and head to go meet Zayn at the art studio. 

They don’t talk about Louis.

-*-

They don’t talk about Louis. 

But they talk about Harry, much to Liam’s dismay.

Not Harry and Zayn, or Harry and Louis, but Harry and Niall.

Liam decides he doesn’t know if he wants new friends or not.

“When did you last sleep with him?” Niall asks Zayn.

“Friday. You?”

“Wednesday.”

“Fucking shit.” Zayn sighs. 

Liam makes a face at them both. “You’ve both slept with him then. Now what are you planning on doing?”

Niall scoffs.

“Liam,” Zayn says, exasperated. “You don’t understand.”

“Of course I understand! He’s cheating on you both.” And maybe Louis, he doesn’t say.

Zayn and Niall are silent for a minute, before they burst into loud laughter, genuine and hearty laughter. After a moment of Liam pouting and looking at them like ‘what have I said?’, Niall wipes away a tear.

“Oh Liam, please never change.” The blonde boy says, and he rests his head in Zayn’s lap. Zayn takes his fingers to card through Niall’s hair.

“What have I said?” Liam asks aloud.

Zayn sighs. “Liam, I wasn’t exclusive with Harry. Niall wasn’t exclusive with Harry either. It was a ‘fuck buddy’ type of thing. Following me so far?”

“Sort of.”

“Harry wasn’t cheating on us with each other, mate. We don’t care about that, Harry sleeps around as it is. What we’re flabbergasted about is that he fucked two best friends, and didn’t have the nerve to not do it.” Niall finishes.

Liam sighs. “I don’t get this whole sleeping around thing.” Especially if Harry not cheating on or with Zayn and Niall is anyhow related to Liam’s theory of him and Louis.

Niall yanks Liam’s wrist and Zayn wraps his arms around Liam’s shoulders, making him apart of their cuddle. “That’s because they’re called ‘one night stands,’ things you don’t have enough of.”

“I don’t have them because they’re wrong.” Liam states confidently.

Niall bites Liam’s arm. “No. It’s because you’re a prude.”

-*-

“Social Darwinism is a belief, popular in the late Victorian era in England, America, and elsewhere, which states that the strongest or fittest should survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to d-”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Liam sighed, looking up from his Sociology textbook, and shouted, “Niall! Harry’s here!”

“I’ve got it!” He heard Niall call back.

It had been almost a week since Zayn and Niall found out they had both slept with Harry, and much to Liam’s dismay, they’d arranged something instead of keeping it to a once in a while type of thing. Niall was allowed two shags before Zayn could have his two, and they went back and forth. Liam thought it to be ridiculous and unnecessary, but Harry and the pair seemed to think it was okay.

It however wasn’t okay, especially when one out of two or two out of two times, Liam was trying to revise.

“We swear we won’t let anything bad happen,” Zayn had told Liam. “And besides, if anything does happen, Niall and I have each other, we don’t exactly need Harry.”

Liam knew that he needed new friends. Needed, not wanted.

He shut his eyes and counted down from ten, before returning back to his revising. 

“…while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die. The theory was chiefly expounded by Herbert Spencer, whose ethical philosophies always held an elitist view and received a boost from the application of Darwinian ideas such as-”

“Liam?”

“Oh now what?” He groaned, his head snapping to the door. His irritation faded quickly.

“Oh, Louis, I didn’t-“

He smiled sheepishly. “I know you’re revising and all that, but since Harry’s gonna be here with Niall, maybe you wouldn’t mind if I went with you to Zayn’s gallery showing tonight?”

Liam’s eyes widened. “His sculpture showing is tonight? But I thought it was on-“

“Tuesday.” Louis finished. “Today’s Tuesday.”

“It’s always Tuesday, innit?” Liam offered lamely. It was partly true anyhow. Liam mostly saw Louis on a Tuesday anyhow, occasionally Fridays.

Louis only smiled. “I’ll be downstairs. Five minutes, yeah? I promise I’ll get you home in time so you can keep revising. But if we want to grab chips before hand, we’ve got to leave now.”

“Okay, that’s, yeah. Give me a bit.” Liam says. 

In less than twenty minutes later, he and Louis are finishing the last of their chips and heading into the gallery at the University, and Liam fidgets.

“So, uh, how’re you dealing with Harry and Zayn and Niall’s little deal?” He tries to start a small conversation.

Louis laughs. “I could use a few months of therapy.” He says nothing more however, because they entire the gallery and Louis’s blue eyes gaze around in wonder and curiosity.

“Zayn always mentioned these things were amazing. I didn’t think he’d be right.” He admonishes, staring at someone’s pointillism piece, entitled ‘The Square Root of Being In Love With Denial.’

Liam sees a person staring into the window, the left side of the frame in the shape of the square root symbol. On the other side of the window, in the gazer’s view, were what appeared to be dead or nearly dead roses. In the shade however, were roses in full bloom. It’s a familiar piece.

“‘Teaching you to not see what clouds your vision, but instead to see the verbatim of the sight in it’s beautiful entirety, and most simplified form.’” Louis reads aloud. Liam glanced away from the painting and at the artwork of Louis Tomlinson’s face.

“It’s quite beautiful, and tragic. Who painted this?” Louis questioned with a smile. 

“I did.”

Both boys turned, eyes landing on Zayn. Liam beamed at him. “You didn’t tell me that you finished it.”

“Wanted it to be a surprise.” Zayn drawls.

Louis looks at Zayn in wonder. “How long did this take you? And I thought you were presenting a sculpture, not a painting?”

“About three days, really. And I am presenting a sculpture, this is just an opening piece.” Zayn seems happy to share his work with new people. “Just something to give the people an idea of what the artist can do at the beginning of the gallery, before they see the heavy stuff. The true stuff. Then it’s who the artist is, that they’re seeing.”

Louis nods enthusiastically. “Well I love this! Where’s your main piece?”

Zayn leads Liam and Louis towards the back of the gallery, and they stop in front of a two foot tall sculpture, resting atop a four foot column display. 

“My god, Zayn, it’s beautiful.” Liam says. Because it is. It’s the body of a six string acoustic guitar and part of the neck, two hands playing it, the fingers placed delicately on the strings. The detail of the hands are so intricate and the entire piece is so well put together that Liam almost cries.

He is so proud of Zayn right now. He could kiss him and congratulate him and-

“Zayn, aren’t those Harry’s hands?”

-kill him. Liam is going to kill him.

Zayn flushes. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

Louis smirks. “You think I don’t know my best mate’s hands?”

“Right.” Zayn bites back a smile. “Well he’s sort of my muse. Niall is too. Niall supplied the guitar and Harry supplied his hands and…voila.”

Louis nods. “It’s fantastic. What did you name it?”

“‘Trembling Hands Touch Skin.’” Zayn says proudly.

Louis doesn’t hear the innuendo in his tone, and Liam wants to puke. But he doesn’t. Because he’s never seen Louis so captivated and interested and so full of awe and wonder. It looks like he’s five and in Disney Paris for the first time ever. Liam can’t get enough, so he stares.

“Truly magnificent.” Louis says.

Yes, Liam thinks. You really are.

-*-

When Liam realizes he’s already been on dates with Louis, it’s actually quite stupid that he didn’t realize before.

It’s Friday afternoon. He and Niall are laying on their backs on the grass in the courtyard of their university, and it’s pouring rain but they lay there anyway. It had become something they’d done since they were eight, just laying in the rain.

“It’s just water.” They agreed back then, and sometimes would lay in it so long they’d fall asleep, and when they woke up with stuffy noses and the need for paracetamol, they always thought it was worth it.

“So Zayn says the gallery thing went well.” Niall says to him now, his eyes shut and blonde hair sticking to his face.

Liam shrugs, though Niall can’t see him. “It did, I suppose. He loved both of Zayn’s pieces.”

“Yeah? Even that guitar piece he made?”

“Er…yeah.” Liam says, and it leaves his mouth as a sort of strangled noise.

Niall is its up and shakes out his hair, and looks down at Liam. He raises a brow and points accusingly. “What was that?” 

Liam says “Nothing. I said yeah.”

“You keep making that face, Payne. What happened? Did you think Zayn’s sculpture was shit or something?”

“No! I loved it! It’s just…Louis uh-found something, about the piece. Not something wrong, but something, particular? I suppose.”

Niall poked Liam’s cheek. “Liammm.”

“He saw Harry’s hands, in the sculpture.”

Niall paused. “You still reckon they’re a thing, don’t you?”

“I don’t really know. He didn’t say and no one else did. But Louis seems to know him like the back of his…his hands.”

“Harry doesn’t cheat, though.”

“But he can sleep around, can’t he?”

Niall squares his eyes. “You want to know the truth, Liam? Harry and Louis were a thing, past tense. Like, in secondary school. Not anytime recently. Louis and Harry didn’t work back then, they won’t work now. The only reason why they act like that is because they still need each other around, whether Louis is loud and awkward sand drunk and Harry can’t keep his cock in his pants. Louis doesn’t want Harry. Know what he does want?”

Liam swallows. “Nights at the club?”

“He wants you, you fucking twat!” Niall shouts, landing a solid punch on Liam’s arm. “He’s already asked you out but each time you end up more oblivious than the last time!”

“H-he what?!” Liam splutters, and Niall groans and falls back onto the grass, rain hitting his pale face.

“That night at the bar? Just you two? That was intentional. Me, Harry, and Zayn said that we weren’t coming because Louis didn’t want us there. At all. He wanted you and him to go and get wasted, but you didn’t. That was your first date, you oblivious piece of crap. Jesus Christ Liam it’s been like two months how the fuck do you not know this shit by now?!”

Niall only swore like this at Liam when he was frustrated, and Liam felt a pang of guilt. How long had this been going on? “Have we been on others?”

“After the bar? Yeah. The next morning when you took care of him all day, that was your second date, since you practically spent all day with him. Zayn’s art gallery was the third.”

And for while, Liam’s absolutely silent. Three dates. Three of them he’d been on with Louis and he had no clue. And the first one was Louis’ idea! So that pretty much put Harry out of the picture, which Liam didn’t even mind, and that meant Louis had feelings for him too, right?

“So…does that mean we’re dating?”

Niall groans, kicking Liam. “You need to sort yourself out Liam. Like, now.”

“Was that a yes?”

Niall growls, whips his hand out and hits Liam square in his crotch.

-*-

That Tuesday, Liam shows up at the cafeteria right around the time Louis does. Niall is with Zayn and Harry at the gallery, going to see Zayn’s finished piece because it means something to the three of them. Louis and Liam grab a cup of Yorkshire tea and sit down at one of the tables. Louis is quiet, and Liam is practically bouncing with confidence in his chair. It’s a strange switch, really.

“So, I was thinking…” Liam starts.

Louis glances up from his tea, smiles sleepily at Liam. “Yeah?”

“If you wanted, maybe we could go to that new exhibit they’re having at the art museum?”

“The Greek Mythology one?”

Liam nods, doesn’t stutter when he says “Yeah, but, like, on a date maybe?”

“A date? You’re asking me out?”

Liam’s heart pounds in his head. Oh no, what if Niall was wrong? What if he and Harry were back on and Harry didn’t want to sleep with Zayn and Niall anymore? Liam was screwed, so screwed and he-

Louis smiles, reaches across the table and runs his index finger over Liam’s hand. “It only took you a million Tuesdays, Payne.”

Liam smiles back at him, and takes a sip of his tea. 

...Maybe Tuesday’s aren’t that bad.


End file.
